Theme Of Love Gone Love And A Midsummer Night's Dream

Exposition: The story is set in Athens, Greece. Theseus and Hippolyta are both noble and wealthy and they were planning their wedding in 4 days. Hermia and Lysander were in love, but another guy named Demetrius was also in love with Hermia. Helena loves Demetrius but is all alone, because he does not love her. Egeus who is Hermia’s father is not happy about her relationship with Lysander, he wants her to marry Demetrius. Hermia and Lysander plan to run away to another city to be married. Helena tell Demetrius the plan hoping that he will forget Hermia and fall in love with her.

“The course of true love never did run smooth,” comments Lysander of love’s complications in an exchange with Hermia (Shakespeare I.i.136). Although the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream certainly deals with the difficulty of romance, it is not considered a true love story like Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare, as he unfolds the story, intentionally distances the audience from the emotions of the characters so he can caricature the anguish and burdens endured by the lovers. Through his masterful use of figurative language, Shakespeare examines the theme of the capricious and irrational nature of love.

Hermia has been promised to Demetrius by her father; however she is unwilling to marry him as she is in love with Lysander. We are introduced to this theme when they visit Thesus, the figure of authority in the play, who makes it clear that women are not to have their own identity, but instead are

The biggest obstacle in this play occurs when the power of love is challenged by authority. The play starts with Theseus, duke of Athens, being eager to marry Hippolyta, who he wooed with his sword in combat. Although Theseus promises Hippolyta that he will wed her “with pomp, with triumph, with reveling,” true love between them is questionable. By starting the play with Theseus and Hippolyta, Shakespeare hints the audience of the authority involved in their marriage and leaves the audience wonder if they actually love each other. The focus is then shifted to the four lovers: Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius and Helena - by establishing the story of Hermia being forced by her father, Egeus, to marry Demetrius, when the person she actually wants to marry is Lysander. However, Egeus

True love’s path is paved with every step. Through the assistance of fanciful elements as well as characters Puck and Oberon, the true message of love in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is revealed. The four lovers know the direction in which their hearts are inclined to turn, but when the love potion is administered, the bounds of their rectangle are thrashed without knowledge or consent. The rapid shifts in affection between the play’s “four lovers” is representative of the idea that love isn’t a conscious choice, but a cruel game in which we are the figurines, being controlled by whomever the player may be, relating the characters’ karmic fates.

Theseus only allows Hermia three options: to die, to obey her father’s wishes and wed Demetrius or to become a nun. The law was is an obstacle because it prevents Hermia and Lysander from being together.

Hermia’s love for Lysander can be seen as genuine as she states ‘I would my father looked but with my eyes’ which means she wishes her father could see Lysander the way she does. This suggests that she is not under his spell as she truly sees him with her own eyes, and loves him. The audience also sees that she is very passionate about Lysander, as she chooses to ‘yield my virgin patent up’ and live the life of a nun or die rather than ‘wed Demetrius’. We also see the love between Lysander and Hermia is genuine later in Act 1 Scene 1 when ‘Exeunt all but Lysander and Hermia’, as it appears that Lysander is finishing Hermia’s sentences, indicating they are very familiar with each other, and he is comforting her lovingly. Lysander also states ‘true love never did run smooth’ which suggests they truly believe what they feel is true love. Another technique used by Shakespeare to emphasise their love is vivid imagery. Hermia’s speech declaring that she would meet Lysander in ‘the wood’ is filled with imagery suggesting love and passion, such as ‘by Cupid’s strongest bow’ and her reference to the Greek Goddess Venus: ‘By the simplicity of Venus’ doves’, emphasises her passion for Lysander.

Does Lysander love me anymore? In an attempt to escape Hermia’s duties as a daughter and a woman, Lysander composes the idea of running away into the forest where his aunt lives while being unaware of the effects it may have on his relationship with Hermia as well as their trust for one another. Living so close to the forest allows not only Hermia and Lysander to escape from their problems but as well as the Athenian people looking to commit a crime or freely express themselves. In the Discussion of Egeus marriage arrangement, Lysander gives Hermia immense confidence for a marriage in the forest assuring her “I could marry you there, gentle Hermia, where the strict laws of Athens can’t touch us.”(I.i.ll 160-1) referring to the strict laws of Athens shows the tremendous lack of freedom towards the citizens of Athens especially women forced into marriage. Agreeing with this plan causes a ray of happiness towards Hermia allowing her to share the secret with her lifelong friend Helena soon revealing her plans to Demetrius, her true love, overflowing him with determination to find Hermia before marrying Lysander. As the four lovers scavage through the forest on the hunt for their cravings disaster strikes as a fairy servant is sent to withdraw the love for Hermia from Demetrius into Helena causing a catastrophic change of fate among Lysander and Hermia. As Lysander walks up with the essence of the flower of love on his eyelids to the presence of Helena in front of him, shapes true love into an illusion. The confrontation of disbelief from Hermia assures she feels “Can you hurt me any more than by saying you hate me? Hate me? Why? What’s happened to you, my love? Am I not Hermia? Aren’t you Lysander?...you still loved me when we fell asleep, but when you woke up you left

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the true love between Hermia and Lysander is unstable because of many obstacles. The very first obstacle

Is love a remedy to one’s sorrow or the unfortunate reason of their unhappiness? Love is a feeling that overtakes a person when they are around something or someone they admire. It is present everywhere, in every form, in every condition and even when one least expect its. Although love is said to bring happiness to a person’s life; in the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, it led the characters into a world of confusion and misunderstanding. Love is chaotic, unpredictable, and leads to sorrow. It is a hard concept to compromise with and if there are any misunderstandings, it could lead to a complicated and difficult life. In the play, Hermia has her heart broken by Lysander; Helena is confused about the sudden love events of her life, and

The Theme of Love in A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare In the play ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ many aspects of love are explored. In this essay I will be exploring how Shakespeare conveys the theme of love including illusion, confusion, escape, harmony and lust. Historically, it has been suggested that ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ was written for a wedding, signifying the importance of love in this play, however there is no real evidence to prove this myth.

Shakespeare uses the theme of love to fuel the plot but creates a vastly tangled web of people affected positively and negatively by it. The play demonstrates forced love through a series of substantial occurrences playing with emotions shown through control, manipulation, and jealousy. Athenian law is very clear on one point. A father has the right to choose a husband for his children, and Egeus claims that right of his rebellious daughter, Hermia. Egeus insists that she marries Demetrius yet Hermia is in love, but with another man, Lysander.

Lysander and Hermia also portray true love. Refusing to marry her suitor, Demetrius, she willingly gives up everything and runs away from Athens with her lover, Lysander, “There my Lysander and I shall meet, and thence from Athens turn away our eyes.” In the play within the play, Pyramus and Thisbe also present us with true love. Their situation

Love is one of the most coveted things in our world. Almost everyone desires to be loved by another, especially if they love them black. However, love is also something that can disturb your life by making things that you strongly wish won’t happen, happen, as shown in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Nights Dream. Shakespeare demonstrates that the power of love can cause people to behave in ridiculous ways, damage your friendships, and just make you too blind to see the way you should be.Through the use of many different narrative conventions, love is shown to be a very powerful and seemingly destructive force in A Midsummer Nights dream.

This time he places it on the right person’s eyes, though both Demetrius and Lysander are in love with Helena, so Lysander and Hermias’ true love is still mixed up. When Puck finally places the love potion on Lysander’s eyes once again, he falls back in love with Hermia. Though their true love took a few turns, it finally ended up being okay. Therefore, Lysander’s quote “the course of true love never did run smooth,”(28) occurs for them.